The move brings Zencity s sentiment monitoring tools together with Elucd s polling technology, which the companies hope will give public officials a better way to see how the public responds to their actions.
Local Gov Leader Rebecca Woodbury Launches Consultancy
After stepping down as digital services chief for the city of San Rafael, Calif., Woodbury is continuing her work at her new company, Department of Civic Things. Her focus: Helping small jurisdictions change. Eyragon Eidam/Government Technology
Rebecca Woodbury, the digital services chief for the city of San Rafael, Calif., who made a name for herself as an outspoken advocate for innovation in local government, has started her own company.
The startup, called Department of Civic Things, is a consultancy Woodbury has created to carry on her work with more local governments especially small ones.
An Apology to COBOL: Maybe Old Technology Isn’t the Real Problem
COBOL is a 50-year-old programming language that some say government should get away from. But it could still have a place in modern IT organizations. Shutterstock.com
In April 2020, New Jersey’s governor, Phil Murphy, stepped up to a microphone and told journalists that he was amazed the state still ran its unemployment system on COBOL a 60-year-old programming language. The state was having trouble keeping up with the massive surge of unemployment insurance applications coming in amid pandemic lockdowns, and it needed volunteers who knew that archaic language to use its own decrepit technology!
Exclusive: Camino Lands $3M as Digital Permitting Rises
Digital permitting software is one of those niches that became very relevant as social distancing became the norm in 2020. Camino, a startup in that space, saw massive growth and used it to raise an investment round. Shutterstock/TuiPhotoEngineer
Camino, a startup that makes permitting and licensing software for government, had a big year in 2020 as governments scrambled to move paper-based, in-person work online.
The company has parlayed that growth into a $3 million funding round from investors, led by previous investor Storm Ventures.
“They’ve been heads down, (but) they had a great year,” said Frederik Groce, a partner at Storm Ventures. “We got excited by some of the underlying traction … gov tech as a whole had a pretty good 2020, in terms of governments having to reach out to those early stage software vendors to solve a lot of different problems.”